10 Tricks that Give You Power Over Your Body

Материал готовится, пожалуйста, возвращайтесь позднее

We may control a lot of what our body does, but sometimes it rebels — whether its with brain freeze, a gag reflex, or just plain bad vision. Here are our top 10 body hacks that give the power back to you.

10. Easily Swallow Stubborn Pills

If you aren't very good at swallowing pills, you can try this trick to get them down: tilt your head forward instead of backward once its in your mouth. The capsule should float to the back of your throat, where you can swallow it easily

9. Dilate or Shrink Your Pupils

Being able to dilate your pupils at will can help you see the world differently, and there are a number of ways you can go about it — from tensing your stomach in different ways to just focusing on objects that are far away. Useful for affecting how others feel about you or for pulling of a major bluff in a poker game.

8. Get Rid of Pins and Needles

We all know that tingling feeling you get when your hand or foot goes to sleep, and how annoying it is. If you get it in your hand, it's likely a result of some nerve compression in your neck, so just move your head around for a few seconds to make the feeling dissipate. Sadly, this won't also work for your feet — you have to get up and walk around to wake them up

7. Cool Off Quickly

When your body feels like its going to overheat from the scorching summer sun, you can lower your body temperature quickly using one of your body's quick cooling spots, like your wrist or the back of your knee. Running some water over these pulse points (or, even better, wrapping them in a wet bandana) can help cool down your entire body in a flash.

6. Boost Your Mental Performance

When your body's cooperating but your brain just isn't, you can boost your memory, attention, and cognitive reasoning skills by chewing some gum. The benefits only last about 20 minutes or so, but it can be helpful for that last-minute cramming session or the end of your big exam. Incidentally, chewing gum can also relieve heartburn, too.

5. Improve Your Vision

As silly as it may seem, you can boost your "far vision" just by making your hand into a fist and looking through it like a telescope — just like you did when you were a kid playing pirates. More interesting is using the "pirate's method" of improving your vision at night: if you move from darkness to light, then back to darkness, keeping one eye closed, you can retain your night vision in that one eye (apparently, this is why pirates wore eye patches). If you don't have light nearby, you can always hold your cellphone or other lighted device up to one eye, improving the night vision of the other eye.

4. Suppress the Urge to Go to the Bathroom

When you gotta go, you gotta go, but if you scratch the back of your calf vigorously, you can stall your brain and give you a bit more time to get to the bathroom. It's hardly a long term solution, but when you're in a bind — as one often is in these situations — it can be a life saver

3. Turn Off Your Gag Reflex

Dentist haters of the world unite: it seems that by making a fist and squeezing your left thumb, you can suppress your gag reflex. It's unknown as to whether it's a specific set of nerves in your hand or just a distraction for your brain, but either way, if you're starting to choke, this could help you out. And, if you move your hand up a few inches to your wrist, you can relieve nausea by applying